Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerSenate President Stephen Sweeney (D- Gloucester( shakes hands with Gov. Chris Christie as Christie prepares to deliver his first State of the State address earlier this month.

TRENTON — New Jersey’s millionaires are at the center of another budget debate between Gov. Chris Christie and the Democrats who control the Legislature — where every lawmaker is up for re-election this year.

The governor, who will present a new state budget next month, is again preaching fiscal discipline and no new taxes or increases, a message he used to beat former Gov. Jon Corzine in 2009 and also to prevail during budget negotiations in 2010.

“You have a situation where the public’s not convinced — nor am I — that we’ve done everything we can on the spending side of things,” Christie told The Record in a recent interview. “You also have a public that has been subjected to 115 tax and fee increases over the last eight years, so they’re a little weary, too.”

But Democratic legislative leaders don’t share the governor’s position on the budget this year, specifically when asked whether the state’s roughly 16,000 millionaires should be contributing more in taxes given the steep cuts in education aid and property tax rebates that came with last year’s budget.

“We are going to talk about everything going forward because we have to,” said Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester).

“Everything has to be explored,” said Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex).

Last year, the Democratic leaders and Christie, a Republican, had the same opposing views on spending and taxes as they tried to balance the governor’s first state budget.

Christie said New Jersey’s budget problems required widespread spending cuts, while the Democrats tried to force a renewal of a 10.75 percent millionaires’ income tax rate that Corzine used to bring in more revenue to balance his last budget.

Christie won out in the end when Democrats cast the deciding votes on a budget that included the steep spending cuts, but left out the higher tax rate on millionaires.

Thus the current tax rate for incomes over $500,000 is 8.97 percent, a rate former Gov. Jim McGreevey called a “millionaires’ tax” in 2004.

Christie told The Record that despite some signs of economic recovery in New Jersey last year, the state is still not in a position to raise any taxes in 2011.

“I am of an economic view that if you are not in the midst of strong economic performance that to raise taxes of any kind [would] put a wet blanket on any kind of economic growth you’re having,” he said.

This year, however, with all 120 legislative seats on the ballot in November, Democrats are now talking about Christie’s treatment of millionaires and the rich in New Jersey.

After Christie’s Jan. 11 State-of-the-State address, they were quick to compare last year’s toughest budget cuts — to education aid, property tax rebates and the income tax credit earned by low-wage workers — with Christie’s opposition to hiking the tax rate on millionaires.

“What we want to challenge the governor to do is to examine the tax structure and those kinds of tax cuts that best benefit working-class people,” Oliver said.

“The only people in Chris Christie’s New Jersey that do well are millionaires,” Sweeney said. “They are the only ones, [while] 99.5 percent of the people in New Jersey experienced pain.”

'Millionaires tax' bills pass both houses, but are vetoed by Gov. ChristieThe millionaires tax passed the Senate 23-17 and the Assembly 46-32, today, with votes strictly along partisan lines, but was quickly vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie. Democrats say the tax will provide $637 million to restore property tax rebates for seniors and the disabled that would be cut under Christie’s proposed budget. (Video by Brian Donohue / The Star-Ledger)

“I just think it’s right for 100 percent of the people to sacrifice, not 99.5,” he said.

Labor leaders who represent government workers, meanwhile, are also pushing for New Jersey to raise more revenue by taxing higher-income earners more heavily, especially with Christie calling for new spending cuts that are tied to a reduction of their pension and health benefits.

“In a crisis of this magnitude, simple fairness demands that everyone in New Jersey tighten their belts, starting at the top, with New Jersey millionaires, who, thanks to Gov. Christie and the extension of the Bush tax cuts, will pay $38,000 less in taxes this year, over $100 a day,” said Hetty Rosenstein, director of the New Jersey Communications Workers of America.

“The only people who got a tax cut in New Jersey last year were the wealthy,” said Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO. “Christie’s cuts in school aid, municipal aid and property tax rebates were really a tax increase for working families.”

Republican lawmakers, however, said they are backing Christie’s tax policies, citing the economy and the need for job creation.

“This must be the year of the taxpayer, when politics is put aside by all who serve in order to save our state from economic peril,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union.

“My friends in the majority must join us in creating permanent jobs for New Jersey by not raising taxes, and giving businesses the confidence that they will not be asked to foot the bill for endless borrowing and spending we cannot afford,” said Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth).